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One more note: You don't need an HDMI monitor for the media center to work. Using a DVI-D connection without HDMI support will prevent local video playback, however XBox 360 extenders will still work. Local video playback can be accomplished using an analog VGA connection.

I was worried that I was going to have to replace my Dell 2405FP, which cost me over $800, but I'm using it with the VGA connection with no problems.

You're probably getting downsampled HD on your VGA connection. Since you Dell is pretty high res you should be able to see a noticible diference in quality between 1080i content that's protected (and therefore downsampled) and OTA HD.

The downsampling isn't an issue for me as I keep my media center PC in my office and use it as my personal computer. All media center functions are used throughout the house using 4 XBox 360 extenders.

1) Sound - I believe it's one at a time, though I will have to check. Supposedly there are chips that can do this though.
2) What you see is what you get on the Grand Theater - audio wise.
3) Sure are - won't be a for a few weeks though - and yeah, the drivers I'm sure will come along.
4) Demand seems to be up on those, so I don't see why not.

The reason I was curious about the motherboard not having digital sound is because of this description for the motherboard on your website.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VelocityMicro.com

Intel® High Definition Audio subsystem in one of the following configurations:
8-channel (7.1) audio subsystem with five analog audio outputs and two S/PDIF digital audio outputs (coaxial and optical) using the Sigmatel* 9274D audio codec6-channel (5.1) audio subsystem with three analog audio outputs using the Sigmatel 9227 audio codec

Although if the onboard sound can't do analog + digital at the same time, I'll probably be shopping for an add-on soundcard anyhow...

I had a TWC tech come out on Sunday to replace one of my Two CableCARDs that wasn't getting me encrypted stations. The tech came with only one card, dated mid 2005. We put that card into the system, and it was DOA. So out of desperation, we put the card that was in the system, back into the system. It still didn't work. So the tech calls back to his support office, and he finds out that the system had my Host ID and CARD ID's backwards. After having the Tech in my home for about 20 minutes TWC corrected that problem and the card started working as advertised.

It was at this point that for NO apparent reason the tuner and card that had been working decided to stop working correctly. We spent more than an hour testing the line and the tuners and everything else we could think of to no avail. So now I'm in the same situation that i was in before the tech came out, and instead of the second tuner not being able to decrypt, the first card is unable to decrypt.

So now I have another Tech coming tomorrow. He's supposed to bring me the newest cards he can get his hand on, and we shall try this entire process one more time.

Anyone have any thoughts on this front? Similar experiences, or suggestion?

I had a TWC tech come out on Sunday to replace one of my Two CableCARDs that wasn't getting me encrypted stations. The tech came with only one card, dated mid 2005. We put that card into the system, and it was DOA. So out of desperation, we put the card that was in the system, back into the system. It still didn't work. So the tech calls back to his support office, and he finds out that the system had my Host ID and CARD ID's backwards. After having the Tech in my home for about 20 minutes TWC corrected that problem and the card started working as advertised.

It was at this point that for NO apparent reason the tuner and card that had been working decided to stop working correctly. We spent more than an hour testing the line and the tuners and everything else we could think of to no avail. So now I'm in the same situation that i was in before the tech came out, and instead of the second tuner not being able to decrypt, the first card is unable to decrypt.

So now I have another Tech coming tomorrow. He's supposed to bring me the newest cards he can get his hand on, and we shall try this entire process one more time.

Anyone have any thoughts on this front? Similar experiences, or suggestion?

Sounds like you now have the problem that rickhuizinga was complaining about 1 page back. He posted his solution, here's his quote

Quote:

If the CableCARD is not properly provisioned, then media center will pop up a message to contact your cable company and display the data id, etc.

In this case, the tuner was not able to lock onto copy protected channels, and was confirmed by a support tech from Velocity Micro by viewing one of the diagnostic screens where the 'locked'/'unlocked' state kept changing.

Fortunately, thed support tech was able to guide me to fixing the problem, and it was the most bizarre solution: unplug the cable card from the first tuner that was working properly, verify proper operation, then replug. After this, the second tuner (& first) are now working perfectly and I'm a happy customer.

Both tuners and CableCards are working correctly (or as correctly as the Scientific-Atlanta cards work under the current firmware).

I got a call from the service tech that came to my house on Sunday as I was walking in my home last evening (5pm). He wanted to try everything we couldn't try while he was on scene the day before. We confirmed that all the system data (Host ID and Card ID) were recorded and enter correctly in their (Time Waner's) system. After that he hit both cards 3 or 4 times to no avail. We un-paired both cards (which is strange becasue i was recording and HBO-HD movie at the time and it never skipped a beat), and repaired. Both cars re-paired with no problems ("Auth by CP"). I still couldn't get a picture from the first tuner. I looked at the network traffic (using the sidebar plug-in network gadget) in real time and found that the card was passing the stream data to the system. When I would tune to an encripted channel, the word "error" would replace the word "inserted" in the ATI Diagnostic screen that comes up under the "Card" tab. No matter what we tried, nothing corrected the condition. At this point, TW gave up and scheduled another tech to bring two new cards to me Tuesday after 5pm.

At this point I called VM tech support to see if they had any idea's. The first thing the concierge told me was that there wasn't much that he would be able to do for me and the ATi had Filed a lawsuit against the company that made the cards for them. (This is the second time I have heard this. Chris, is this true and can you clarify this for everyone?) He talked to the DCT guru that was on the line with someone else and told me to take the working card out of the system and reboot with only the "BAD" tuner and CableCARD installed. I did this and the same symptoms persisted; No picture but good network bandwidth from the card. I shut down, reinstalled the other card (I did swap the USB bus that each card was attached to on the Mother board, and physically switched the locations inside the case to try and eliminated those as possible causes for the problem) and rebooted. Same problem. At this point, the concierge took my phone number and told me that the tech guru would call me later in the evening (he had a meeting to get to after the phone call he was currently on).

After hanging up with VM's concierge, I was going to give up, but i decided to try one last thing before i gave up and watched Drive on FOX. On a hunch, and for no good reason, I decide to take the cards out of both tuners and switch them to the other systems. I knew that this wouldn't work, but i wanted to make sure that both cars weren't paired to the same Tuner (I have no idea how this would have happened, but the day before I found out that the working card and tuner set had been entered in TW's system with the Host ID and Card ID reversed, so i figured what the heck). When I went to the Diagnostic screen and brought up the card data, I got "Waiting for CP," which is what I expected. So I switched them back. AND THEN A MIRACLE HAPPENED. After about 5 minutes, both cards were happy to back in their proper homes, and BOTH started working.

I have no idea why it worked, but it did.

I do think we need to start a Thread just for DCT Tips and Trikes. Almost everything we do to make these cards work right now is a Trick, so maybe a list of what has worked for others in the past.

I canceled my Tech appointment for tomorrow, and the cards didn't stop working, so for now, I feel safe.

I have been enjoying my VM system for a couple of weeks (minus working TV), but I am continually having problems with sleep mode. Originally the problems were sourced to the bios being set incorrectly, but I still have problems. About 50% of the time when waking the system from sleep mode, the computer turns on, but the screen is blank. Other times when I get an image onscreen, the system is at the login prompt even though I have set the system not to ask for a password when recovering from sleep mode, and I have even eliminated the password completely. This concerns me as I assume this may have a negative impact on waking to record (this may not be the case as I currently cannot test). Is this a common problem or am I the only one experiencing this?

I have been enjoying my VM system for a couple of weeks (minus working TV), but I am continually having problems with sleep mode. Originally the problems were sourced to the bios being set incorrectly, but I still have problems. About 50% of the time when waking the system from sleep mode, the computer turns on, but the screen is blank. Other times when I get an image onscreen, the system is at the login prompt even though I have set the system not to ask for a password when recovering from sleep mode, and I have even eliminated the password completely. This concerns me as I assume this may have a negative impact on waking to record (this may not be the case as I currently cannot test). Is this a common problem or am I the only one experiencing this?

We can work with you on that - contact Ben in support so we can do some troubleshooting - I have not experienced sleep issues as that was one of our focuses during validation.

I have been enjoying my VM system for a couple of weeks (minus working TV), but I am continually having problems with sleep mode. Originally the problems were sourced to the bios being set incorrectly, but I still have problems. About 50% of the time when waking the system from sleep mode, the computer turns on, but the screen is blank. Other times when I get an image onscreen, the system is at the login prompt even though I have set the system not to ask for a password when recovering from sleep mode, and I have even eliminated the password completely. This concerns me as I assume this may have a negative impact on waking to record (this may not be the case as I currently cannot test). Is this a common problem or am I the only one experiencing this?

I have a similar issue. When my computer "wakes" from sleep mode, the DVI connection will show a blank screen. However, my component connection works every time.

- Are you plannning on offering the Nvidia 8600 video cards (maybe even with HDMI) when they come out in a few days? The 8800s are nice, but I wouldn't think I'd need that much horsepower for my HTPC. 8600 seems like a nice compromise, and it's probably cooler. And hopefully it'll have comparable image quality tests to the 8800s. (these HQV benchmarks scare me a little, but hopefully new drivers will fix this)

Wow... by the looks of the early benchmarks, it looks like the cheaper 8600 series cards are whooping the pricey 8800 video cards (for HTPC purposes only).

Heck, it almost sounds like the $100-120 8500 GT will beat any 8800 card for pure HTPC video decoding. That's what I'm hoping to see in the Velocity Micro machines! Between this and the upcoming Intel price cuts, I'm getting antsy to buy...

Both tuners and CableCards are working correctly (or as correctly as the Scientific-Atlanta cards work under the current firmware).

I got a call from the service tech that came to my house on Sunday as I was walking in my home last evening (5pm). He wanted to try everything we couldn't try while he was on scene the day before. We confirmed that all the system data (Host ID and Card ID) were recorded and enter correctly in their (Time Waner's) system. After that he hit both cards 3 or 4 times to no avail. We un-paired both cards (which is strange becasue i was recording and HBO-HD movie at the time and it never skipped a beat), and repaired. Both cars re-paired with no problems ("Auth by CP"). I still couldn't get a picture from the first tuner. I looked at the network traffic (using the sidebar plug-in network gadget) in real time and found that the card was passing the stream data to the system. When I would tune to an encripted channel, the word "error" would replace the word "inserted" in the ATI Diagnostic screen that comes up under the "Card" tab. No matter what we tried, nothing corrected the condition. At this point, TW gave up and scheduled another tech to bring two new cards to me Tuesday after 5pm.

At this point I called VM tech support to see if they had any idea's. The first thing the concierge told me was that there wasn't much that he would be able to do for me and the ATi had Filed a lawsuit against the company that made the cards for them. (This is the second time I have heard this. Chris, is this true and can you clarify this for everyone?) He talked to the DCT guru that was on the line with someone else and told me to take the working card out of the system and reboot with only the "BAD" tuner and CableCARD installed. I did this and the same symptoms persisted; No picture but good network bandwidth from the card. I shut down, reinstalled the other card (I did swap the USB bus that each card was attached to on the Mother board, and physically switched the locations inside the case to try and eliminated those as possible causes for the problem) and rebooted. Same problem. At this point, the concierge took my phone number and told me that the tech guru would call me later in the evening (he had a meeting to get to after the phone call he was currently on).

After hanging up with VM's concierge, I was going to give up, but i decided to try one last thing before i gave up and watched Drive on FOX. On a hunch, and for no good reason, I decide to take the cards out of both tuners and switch them to the other systems. I knew that this wouldn't work, but i wanted to make sure that both cars weren't paired to the same Tuner (I have no idea how this would have happened, but the day before I found out that the working card and tuner set had been entered in TW's system with the Host ID and Card ID reversed, so i figured what the heck). When I went to the Diagnostic screen and brought up the card data, I got "Waiting for CP," which is what I expected. So I switched them back. AND THEN A MIRACLE HAPPENED. After about 5 minutes, both cards were happy to back in their proper homes, and BOTH started working.

I have no idea why it worked, but it did.

I do think we need to start a Thread just for DCT Tips and Trikes. Almost everything we do to make these cards work right now is a Trick, so maybe a list of what has worked for others in the past.

I canceled my Tech appointment for tomorrow, and the cards didn't stop working, so for now, I feel safe.

Yeah!!!!

D

I, like many of you, am eagerly awaiting my VM order for my HTPC and dual internal DCT's. I've been reading the forum and have seen more than a fair share of horror stories about getting their CableCARD / Cable Co. / DCT's working together. It seems as if this really is a bleeding edge product and that I should expect it to not work the first time I set it up.

Is that the general experience of other lucky users here that received their VM HTPC's with DCT's installed?

I'm getting my pc today - yippie (external tuner to arrive when they fix it). i've got a question - does the hdmi cable transmit sound from the pc? also - i just bought a new samsung lcd tv (widescreen) when i hooked my old pc up to it - it streached everything out - the start button is really wide (windows xp) is there a way to make it look normal?

does the hdmi cable transmit sound from the pc? also - i just bought a new samsung lcd tv (widescreen) when i hooked my old pc up to it - it streached everything out - the start button is really wide (windows xp) is there a way to make it look normal?

As far as I can see, none of the Media Center systems from VM have HDMI ports on the video cards, so, no audio by that fashion. A quick look at this newegg search shows only one card that will do S/PDIF pass-through, and user reviews make the card not look so good anyway.

I have HDMI through my ATi X1600, and it has been passing sound since day one. The only issue i have is that the HDCP doesn't play well with my receiver and the picture drops out every 3-5 seconds for 3-5 seconds or so. I bypassed my receiver and have had no issues, but i can't use the HDMI to pass the sound now because my tv wouldn't know what to do with it.

just got my computer - spent all night setting it up - i'm pooped!!!! nice computer - i'm not so crazy about how non digital tv looks on it - colors are washed out. hopefuly when i get the digital cable card tuner it will look better. has anyone tried the remote record service?

do you guys leve it on all the time or do you turn it off? if you leave it on - do you just turn off your monitor/sound - and leave media center on? i'm trying to figure out how to use it.

Also, I see that the 8600GTS is now the default choice on the VM order page. NICE! If you don't plan on playing games with your HTPC, that card is definitely the way to go! Now I'm just waiting for the 8500GT to be released. Cheaper, cooler-running, and just as good for HTPCs as the 8600 cards.

Also, I see that the 8600GTS is now the default choice on the VM order page. NICE! If you don't plan on playing games with your HTPC, that card is definitely the way to go! Now I'm just waiting for the 8500GT to be released. Cheaper, cooler-running, and just as good for HTPCs as the 8600 cards.

so while i'm waiting for my cable card tuner (is that what their calling them?) to show up i decided to buy a HD antenna and see what happens. I live on a low floor in Manhattan and i've got buildings infront of me - so i didn't think i'd get anything. Well i was suprised - i get all the networks and a couple of other channels. its amaizing - and the pic quality is fantastic. i bought the new samsung 32" lcd that just came out. Looks awsome. and being able to remotly schedule shows is very cool. time warner doesn't have anything like that. I'm a happy camper. Setting up was easy - they have a program that analyzes the signal strength of the stations your getting so you can delete the week ones from the tv guide. Once these things get cheeper TIVO will have some serious competition.

Just called AMD today - no new info, they are confident everything's a go for the end of the month. We have our POs in place and are good to go from our end...systems are built and waiting for the rest of our tuners.

The Two tuner limit is a "Support" limit (at least for NTSC and ATSC). Microsoft "Supports" two NTSC or DCT tuners (One type or the other) and two ATSC tuners. The system can run with more NTSC or ATSC tuners then the "supported" number.

When I setup my DCT system, it had two DCT's installed USB, a USB ATSC tuner, and an HDHomerun (Network based dual ATSC tuners with Vista Drivers). When I let Vista set up my Tuners itself, if found and attached 2 DCT's and 3 ATSC tuners. I can schedule 5 things to record at the same time. Windows utilizes all 5 tuners with no 3rd party tweaking, and no registry hacking. If I had manually tried to set up tuners in Vista, I would have hit the 2 Analog (or DCT) and 2 ATSC support limit. (Side note: I have run Vista with as many as 5 ATSC tuners at the same time, but that seemed kind of redundant with the two DCT's. I may try it again just as a practical exercise in the near future, however.)

I would love to get a 3rd DCT (that would be the real hard part), and try it in my system. I have a feeling that the system my not "support" more then 2 DCT's, but it very well could utilizes more DCT's to record more than 2 Digital Cable signals at the same time. The only way to find out, is to try it and see.